NFL Player News

McConkey appeared on Wednesday’s injury report with a calf issue, yet managed to practice in a limited capacity. Although limited sessions early in the week are positive, new soft tissue listings are concerning. At this point, McConkey should be considered truly questionable to play in Week 9 against a Titans defense that notably just traded away starting slot CB Roger McCreary. His practice participation on Friday is critical.

The exact range is said to be $301.2 million to $305.7 million per club. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero notes that this is nearly $100 million more than the $208.2 million salary cap in 2022. The exact number will be finalized before free agency begins on March 11th.

He drops this in a note about Kansas City’s lack of explosion in 2025, a year in which impending free agent Isiah Pacheco was not able to manage a single run of 20 or more yards. New OC Eric Bieniemy, per Taylor, “will be tasked with putting together the correct run-blocking scheme for the Chiefs.” With both Pacheco and Kareem Hunt impending free agents and only gadget back Brashard Smith under contract, this report is not much of a surprise. The Chiefs will likely contend for one of the better free agent backs in this class.

Jim Bob Cooter and Alex Tanney will get interviews over the weekend, but Kingsbury is at the top of Raanan’s list in this article. Kingsbury interviewed for the Giants head coaching vacancy already, and though it would perhaps seem a strange fit with John Harbaugh, it’s possible that Kingsbury is running out of better non-Ravens options this offseason as the Chiefs, Lions, Chargers, Eagles, Buccaneers, Titans, Dolphins and Falcons have already all filled vacancies and the only unsettled head-coaching situations are in Las Vegas and Arizona.

Commanders head coach Dan Quinn brought Johnson aboard less than two weeks after being hired, back in February 2024. Johnson served as the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach from 2021-2022 before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2023. Johnson took the same employment path at Florida before that, going from the quarterbacks coach in 2018-2019 to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2020.

Davenport points out that Brian Daboll ran RPOs on 12.6 percent of their plays last year, fourth-most in the league, and notes that Ward had a lot of success running them in college at Miami. We don’t know that Ward is an upper-tier NFL athlete in space, but every bit of rushing production could help him for fantasy football purposes. Perhaps being in a scheme he’s more familiar with could help as well. Ward, who sprained his AC joint in the Titans’ Week 18 loss to Jacksonville, does not currently have a timetable to return to the field but Titans GM Mike Borgonzi said he was “doing well.”

To be clear, Maye is still dealing with a shoulder injury, but head coach Mike Vrabel said Maye “would’ve been at practice today if not for the illness.” Maye had been limited in practice all week leading up to Friday, but the team doesn’t appear too concerned about his injury sidelining him in the Super Bowl, which is still over a week away.

It’s not a surprise based on how last season ended — and how Coker blew up in the Wild Card loss to the Rams — but it’s good to get coach validation. Xavier Legette has struggled to grab hold of the role in any real way. While Coker finished the year with just a 33/394/3 line, he makes for an intriguing fantasy WR4/WR5 target in drafts and Best Ball.

Dowdle was notably down on how little he was used in the regular season finale and in the playoffs, where he rushed a combined 12 times for 19 yards, and said that would be a “factor” in his free agency. Dowdle’s fantasy stock could take a big upturn if he wound up being the obvious lead back on a new team this offseason. The Chiefs, Saints and Texans come to mind as (our speculation) possibilities. Chuba Hubbard’s stock would similarly rebound if Dowdle took off to greener pastures.

This will be effective through the 2026 NFL Draft. Brzezinski has worked with the Vikings since 1999 as the vice president of football administration and later the executive vice president of football operations. He seems likely to have a little lap in the sun here while the Vikings figure out who their next general manager will be. Wikipedia cites a Minneapolis Star-Tribune item that notes: “Brzezinski is known by staff as “Rob Zombie” due to being calm, quiet, and frankly, a downright savage. He is someone Marshawn Lynch would refer to as “Beast Mode.” And of course, you know that’s all true and definitely what was written in the article.

The Vikings signed Adofo-Mensah to a multi-year extension last offseason and sent him to the Senior Bowl earlier this week. The move comes as a major surprise, but per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis, there “had been a lot, a lot, a lot of noise in recent weeks.” Adofo-Mensah was hired as the Vikings’ general manager in 2022 and oversaw the team’s last four free agent and draft classes. His extension came after he helped build the Vikings into a 14-3 team that unexpectedly rode the arm of Sam Darnold to the postseason, but the decision to let Darnold walk in the offseason coupled with the struggles of second-year pick J.J. McCarthy are likely one of a handful of decisions made my Adofo-Mensah that ultimately led to his dismissal. With their GM spot now vacant, the Vikings have even more to figure out heading into an offseason that was already going to be headlined by a quarterback controversy.